SEQUIM — In the wake of one bad flood comes another deluge this week at the Sequim Senior Activity Center.
The latest flood is dry and diverse: home electronics, tools, fine china, books, kitchenware, clothes and furniture are flowing into the center for its sprawling Benefit Sale.
“This is going to be our biggest sale ever,” said Michael Smith, executive director of the center, which serves 1,400 members.
The fourth annual fundraiser is needed more than ever, since a flood sent an estimated 1,000 gallons of water into the senior center’s front room and library June 26.
Overflow
It all came from an overflowing toilet during a Friday night bingo game, Smith said. The water poured from the restroom unnoticed until bingo players, game over, started leaving the building.
“Members stayed by and made a valiant effort until after midnight to get the water out of the building, using a wet-dry vacuum that was emptied dozens of times,” Smith said.
The flood had gushed down the hallway, going through doors and walls to fill the front room to a reported depth of 2 inches. So Serve-Pro, a water-damage specialist, was summoned and ran its 14 fans and three dehumidifiers for five straight days.
The damages have topped $10,000, Smith said, including $4,950 just for the dry-out service. The library carpet was replaced just this weekend, and new front-room baseboards still have to be put in.
The senior center has insurance, but the deductible is $3,000, Smith noted, and so far donations toward that totaling $300 have come in.
Need reserves
“This kind of event emphasizes how much we need strong reserves on hand,” he said.
“It also illustrates how nice it would be to own a new building, built to today’s standards. Modern building codes require drains in the floor that likely would have accepted all this water and prevented the damage.”
A brand-new senior center, twice the size of the existing 10,000-square-foot building at 921 E. Hammond St., has been on the distant horizon for some time.
“We’ll be looking for land and applying for grants,” Smith said.
The Benefit Sale, meanwhile, generates basic operating funds for the center, which offers dozens of activities, support programs, classes and trips every month.
Its annual budget is $285,000, Smith said, a relatively slim figure thanks to the many volunteers who work at the center.
“The true cost to run the organization is $200 per person,” per year, he said, though members pay annual dues of $35.
Volunteers at work
Volunteer muscle was in evidence Monday morning as senior center board president Margaret Cox and Molly Fitzpatrick, 12, worked through the abundant Benefit Sale items stored on the center’s second floor.
Fellow volunteer Bob Young built a ramp down the stairway so items could slide rapidly down toward the showrooms.
This was a huge improvement over last year, Cox said.
“We were a human chain, a bucket brigade,” she said. “Now we’re as good as UPS.”
Also on Monday, trucks and trailers transported still more goods from three full storage lockers donated by All Safe Mini Storage in Sequim.
“We started pricing and sorting months ago,” Smith said.
The Benefit Sale features several rooms full of merchandise plus a boutique stocked with especially high-quality jewelry, clothing and sets of fine china.
A members’ sneak preview, with membership applications available at the door, will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, and the sale will open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.
Smith added that if another heat wave hits, the center is ready, thanks to another expenditure.
“We had our air conditioner repaired,” he said, and all seniors “are welcome to come down here to escape the heat.”
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
